She selected another chocolate and, without turning her head, said quietly: “If it’s only a matter of a few words, sir, you may.”
“Well, madam—”
“Mademoiselle,” she interjected.
“Well, mademoiselle, I happen to know that you’ve been followed all day in an uncommonly equivocal manner by a well-dressed man, who kept out of your sight, and—”
She interrupted him to say: “Your behavior is of an incorrectness which astonishes me on the part of a [[22]]Frenchman. It is no business of yours to keep an eye on the people who follow me.”
“It was because the fellow appeared to me a suspicious—”
“The gentleman, with whom I am acquainted—he was introduced to me last year—M. Marescal, at least has the delicacy to follow me at a distance and not to invade my compartment.”
Ralph, touched on the raw, bowed.
“Good, mademoiselle, a direct hit. I can only say no more,” he said mournfully.
“You can only say no more till the next station, where I advise you to get out,” she said drily.